Reconstructing David Huffman's Origami Tessellations

David A. Huffman (1925–1999) is best known in computer science for his work in information theory, particularly Huffman codes, and best known in origami as a pioneer of curved-crease folding. But during his early paper folding in the 1970s, he also designed and folded over a 100 different straight-crease origami tessellations. Unlike most origami tessellations designed in the past 20 years, Huffman's straight-crease tessellations are mostly three-dimensional, rigidly foldable, and have no locking mechanism. In collaboration with Huffman's family, our goal is to document all of his designs by reverse-engineering his models into the corresponding crease patterns, or in some cases, matching his models with his sketches of crease patterns. Here, we describe several of Huffman's origami tessellations that are most interesting historically, mathematically, and artistically.National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Origami Design for Integration of Self-assembling Systems for Engineering Innovation Grant EFRI-1240383)National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Expedition Grant CCF-1138967

The Implications of 3D Body Scanning on State Self-Objectification

In this research, the researchers aimed to isolate the 3D body scanning process as a separate variable from viewing the avatar so that the implications of the 3D body scanning on body image and self-objectification may be better understood. The sample of 105 women completed a pretest, body scan, and post-test. The research team found that the process of being body scanned did not significantly change the participants\u27 state self-objectification scores. Demographic differences such as age, race, education, and socioeconomic status did not influence this finding. This finding is important, given that recent studies report that 3D body scanning can have detrimental effects on participants\u27 body satisfaction. This information may be useful for researchers who are concerned that the process of being 3D body scanned may have negative impacts on a participant\u27s state self-objectification

Cathodoluminescence of Recent biogenic carbonates: environmental and ontogenetic fingerprint

Cathodoluminescence (CL) examination of Recent biogenic carbonates shows that they are often luminescent regardless of their mineralogical composition (calcite v. aragonite), habitat (marine v. fresh water), way of life (sessile v. vagile) or environment (hyper- v. hyposaline water). Thus, the presence of luminescence in biogenic particles is not a reliable indicator of diagenetic alteration as some authors have suggested. In addition, CL can reveal variations in the mineralogy of shell material (e.g. regenerated calcitic v. primary aragonitic) and can highlight growth-related structures. Manganese (Mn2+) is the most likely activator of this luminescence, and its content in the shells of benthic organisms seems to be linked to growth rate, ontogeny, open sea conditions, bathymetry and salinity. In neritic environments the Mn2+ content and the CL of molluscs and foraminifera appear to increase with decreasing salinity. This study indicates that CL may be an important tool for the determination of environmental and ontogenetic parameters in biogenic carbonates in addition to its current use indiagenetic studie

USE OF HIGH PERFORMANCE CONCRETE IN OKLAHOMA BRIDGE DECKS

An investigation was performed to develop four different high performance concrete (HPC) mixtures for the Oklahoma Department of Transportation’s (ODOT’s) 2004 Innovative Bridge Research and Construction (IBRC) project funded by the Federal Highway Administration. These HPC mixtures are designed to achieve a greater durability than normal concretes with an emphasis on the shrinkage developed. These mixtures were developed by studying the affects of air entrainment, cementitious materials content, water to cementitious materials (w/cm) ratio, supplemental cementitious materials, fiber reinforcement, and a shrinkage-reducing admixture. Additionally, a large focus of this investigation was developed in the aggregate blend used in the concretes. This study was performed by conducting a separate study of the validity of the Shilstone method of blending aggregates. The research consisted of two parts: a laboratory and a field investigation. The laboratory investigation consisted of an initial system of batching matrices and a succeeding empirical study to develop the four mixtures required. The field investigation consisted of test slabs for the HPC mixtures and actual bridge construction where the University of Oklahoma investigators served as consultants and additional tests were taken to further characterize the mixtures. Based on the results found in these investigations, conclusions and recommendations were made on the local materials and practices used in the HPC mixture.Final Report, May 2005-July 2006N

Quantitative gait analysis before and after a cross-country test in a population of elite eventing horses.

Early recognition of lameness is crucial for injury prevention. Quantitative gait analysis systems can detect low-grade asymmetries better than the human eye and may be useful in early lameness recognition. The aims of this study were 1) to investigate the frequency of gait asymmetries based on head and pelvic movement in elite eventing horses using inertial mounted measurement units and 2) to assess the association between asymmetries and muscle enzymes and blood lactate (LA) levels post exercise. Movement asymmetry of the head, wither, and pelvis were quantified in 33 elite eventing horses prior to and one day after the cross-country test of three Concours Complet International (CCI3* and CCI4*) events held three weeks apart. The effects of LA concentration immediately after completion of the cross-country course and of serum levels of creatine kinase (CK) and aspartate amino-transferase (AST) four hours post-exercise on gait asymmetry parameters were tested with linear models. A total of 58% and 77% of the 33 horses exhibited gait asymmetries that exceeded published threshold values before and after the cross-country course, respectively. The magnitude of pre-existing gait asymmetries was not significantly increased after the cross-country test and no associations with post-exercise levels of CK, AST, or LA were detected. The stride duration was significantly shorter the day following the cross-country test and was associated with LA, the age and the weight of the horses. In conclusion, a majority of the horses studied presented gait asymmetries and strenuous exercise resulted in decreased stride duration but did not worsen gait asymmetries

New Rotation Periods in the Pleiades: Interpreting Activity Indicators

We present results of photometric monitoring campaigns of G, K and M dwarfs in the Pleiades carried out in 1994, 1995 and 1996. We have determined rotation periods for 18 stars in this cluster. In this paper, we examine the validity of using observables such as X-ray activity and amplitude of photometric variations as indicators of angular momentum loss. We report the discovery of cool, slow rotators with high amplitudes of variation. This contradicts previous conclusions about the use of amplitudes as an alternate diagnostic of the saturation of angular momentum loss. We show that the X-ray data can be used as observational indicators of mass-dependent saturation in the angular momentum loss proposed on theoretical grounds

Landing together: how flocks arrive at a coherent action in time and space in the presence of perturbations

Collective motion is abundant in nature, producing a vast amount of phenomena which have been studied in recent years, including the landing of flocks of birds. We investigate the collective decision making scenario where a flock of birds decides the optimal time of landing in the absence of a global leader. We introduce a simple phenomenological model in the spirit of the statistical mechanics-based self-propelled particles (SPP-s) approach to interpret this process. We expect that our model is applicable to a larger class of spatiotemporal decision making situations than just the landing of flocks (which process is used as a paradigmatic case). In the model birds are only influenced by observable variables, like position and velocity. Heterogeneity is introduced in the flock in terms of a depletion time after which a bird feels increasing bias to move towards the ground. Our model demonstrates a possible mechanism by which animals in a large group can arrive at an egalitarian decision about the time of switching from one activity to another in the absence of a leader. In particular, we show the existence of a paradoxical effect where noise enhances the coherence of the landing process.Comment: 15 pages, 7 figure